Friday, January 25, 2013

Our little girl scout

India is a Daisy Girl Scout this year and she is loving it! Here is a picture of her with her troop.
This is a close up picture we took to promote Girl Scout Cookie Sales. We will see how our first year goes :-)

Warm weather

After a few weeks of frigid temperatures it is warming up in Denver! Last weekend we were out and about exploring. Friday afternoon we walked around a lake close to our house. The girls had fun finding sticks - some bigger than them - and seeing dogs.
We had pizza and movie night on the big screen. I had to practice for a presentation I was giving and brought a projector home from work. We figured we might as well have some fun with it too.
Saturday we drove through Gennesse to look for elk and have a picnic. No elk there. We think Grandma and Grandpa are our lucky charms because the only time we got to see the elk there was when they were with us. We decided to drive home through Evergreen and found a herd of elk. We also walked around Evergreen Lake.
We walked, ran, played in the dirt, and walked out on to the ice to visit the ice fishermen. While skeptical at first, we figured if there were hundreds of ice skaters, a zamboni, and two dozen fishermen we would be okay. They were catching trout through the 18 inch ice.
Cowgirl India.
Making friends with the statue by the lake.
Zoo on Sunday.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sweet Prayers

India and Jordyn were able to have a few sleepovers with their cousin Cenika over Christmas break. Apparently they must have had an intense bedtime discussion one night. Here was Cenika's prayer with her mom a few days later: "God bless me and India when we are astronauts and in space and bless Jordyn when she is a princess and make sure Captain Hook does not take her pixie dust." Love them!

First time Ice Skating

Last Sunday the girls and I went ice skating with India's Girl Scout troop. It was the girls' first time on the ice and they did great. At first they were a little apprehensive; especially when they first stood up in their skates. On dry land Jordyn was confident and India was less than thrilled at the limitations on her usual speedy self. Linwood had to work so I was not sure how I would juggle the girls on skates, but I knew I would get it done. On our first lap around the girls were not excited. I tried taking them both at the same time, then I tried helping each one go about 10 feet at a time. I must have looked pretty pathetic because it wasn't long before a troop dad came and offered to help India. That was awesome! He had her zipping around and she LISTENED to his directions :-) Jordyn and I were doing much better as well. Jordyn is naturally athletic and she has great balance and instinct. She did a great job listening to my hints and we were moving along pretty good. After one lap around Jordyn announced that she was "done" and ready go home. We found her a spot on a bench and returned to the rink to pick up India. India's confidence just soared! She was trying to do tricks while holding on to the wall and laughing even when she fell. We went around 2 more times and stopped to check on Jordyn. She had her skates untied and one of them off but we managed to convince her to come out on the ice with us again. This time around India was ready to be done and Jordyn was having a ball. She said, "I was scared but now I'm not and this is really fun." Thoughts after skating: India said, "I didn't like that at all. Mom, can I take lessons?" Jordyn has asked at least 3 times this week when we could go skating again.
The girls watching the zamboni

Saturday Mornings

We are just starting to get to the age where the girls will get up on the weekends and be happy to entertain themselves for a short period of time. This Saturday Linwood has left to play basketball and Jordyn came into the room, crawled into bed with me, kissed me and left. I listened to her wake up her sister and they started talking. It wasn't long before their voices were drifting upstairs from the living room. After the experience with the pizza and oranges a few weeks ago I thought that I should investigate. I crept down the stairs to the landing and discovered that they had just dove into a game of "Go Fish." (Our family's favorite game these past few weeks. They are just learning to hide their cards and listen to what others ask for so it is getting more and more fun.) When they talked about what to eat Jordyn said, "I can just get a bar because I can reach that myself." India said, "I think I will have cereal without milk." WHEW!! Praise the Lord! I snuck back upstairs to jump in the shower one proud Mama!